Despite setbacks, fast-ferry plan is on track

Ever since Kitsap Transit launched fast-ferry service on July 10, the dream of a half-hour ferry trip to Seattle from Bremerton has become a reality. Now the conversation is focused on the reality of ferry breakdowns.

Each time the Rich Passage 1 (RP1) has to be taken out of service for repairs, all of us at Kitsap Transit groan. We recognize public expectations are high. The string of cancellations erodes public confidence.

The hard reality is any new transportation service takes years to get established. Our friends at Washington State Ferries, who have been at this for decades, have struggled this summer with repeated vessel breakdowns and not having a replacement vessel available.

In that context, what our relatively new Marine Services staff has achieved is impressive: From our July launch through the end of August, we carried more than 41,200 riders and completed 93 percent of our scheduled sailings, many of them filled to capacity.

Still, we share customers’ disappointment with RP1’s troubles, all the more frustrating because the boat operated fine during four months of test service in 2012.

What’s clear is that the RP1, like a race car, is a complex machine that needs its own pit crew. In addition to our two experienced marine mechanics, we’ve brought in experts to assess the boat’s major systems. We now know the boat’s four engines degraded over the five years it spent in storage. We know the exhaust system’s design contributed to high pressures on the engines. We’ve taken action to correct the problems: We are replacing engine components, exhaust pipes, and all major electrical components of the jet-drive system, and our board recently approved the purchase of three spare engines.

This past week we had to take RP1 out of service again: A recently installed sea strainer failed and short-circuited electronics in the propulsion-control system. While our mechanics inspect the vessel daily, there are a finite number of issues you can detect and prevent – bad luck is not one of them.

Some have suggested the crack in the RP1’s hull, which our marine mechanics discovered during routine maintenance, was evidence of design flaws. All signs suggest the hull was damaged by a floating vertical log, also known as a deadhead. Deadheads are a known risk for vessels sailing in the Puget Sound. We cancelled sailings out of an abundance of caution and repaired the hull.

Washington State Ferries is and always was the backup on the Bremerton-Seattle route in the first two years. Due to the long cycle times for federal funding and vessel construction, we knew we would not have our own backup vessel from day one. The same was true of the Kingston and Southworth routes. However, for next summer’s launch of Kingston service, we plan to start with a used high-speed vessel and potentially lease a second vessel as a backup until our new vessels are built and delivered.

We had hoped to cover more than half of the cost of boats and terminal improvements with federal grants, but the political climate in D.C. changed. We were transparent with the public that our fallback was a bond issue, and we are committed to launching service on the timeline we promised voters. Our board authorized a $45 million bond issue, which will be repaid over 15 years.

The 3/10 of 1 percent sales tax voters approved for ferries is sufficient to pay the ferry system’s operating costs and debt service. Transit revenue would be drawn upon only in the very unlikely event the ferry system goes bankrupt. Kitsap Transit’s board was willing to take this risk when it placed the bus and ferry services under the same countywide entity because the benefit was giving all Kitsap County residents a chance to vote on the fast-ferry plan, not just residents within a ferry district.

Customer satisfaction is a core value for Kitsap Transit. We’re listening. Not only are we taking steps to improve the service’s reliability, but we’re making changes to enhance customer experience. RP1 now has air-conditioning. We will install new bike racks soon. When it comes to notifying the public of ferry delays or cancellations, our response time has gone from a half-hour to less than 10 minutes.

And more than 500 customers recently responded to a survey aimed at prioritizing improvements to our online reservation system. By October 1, we will put into effect two of several requested changes: E-mail confirmations will show the date of the reserved sailing in the subject line, making it easier for customers to find the correct reservation. And when customers visit our website and select a sailing for which all reservations are taken, the system will indicate “walk-ups open,” not “sold out.” We will work with our vendor on phasing in other improvements.

All startups face setbacks. We are focused on improving the service’s reliability, while keeping passenger safety our top priority. Thank you for giving me and the many hard-working employees at Kitsap Transit the chance to deliver on this community’s dream.